LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GSMA today announced that mobile operators América Móvil, Rogers
Communications and Sprint have interconnected their networks across the
Americas, while Deutsche Telekom, Telenor Group, Telia Company and
Vodafone Group have interconnected in Europe, enabling subscribers in
these regions to access advanced Rich Communications Services (RCS)
across 22 networks in 17 countries1. The upgraded service
will enable users to enjoy enhanced messaging services such as chat,
group chat and file share amongst many others.

Initial interconnection was achieved using the Jibe RCS Hub from Google,
as well as a direct interconnect between Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom
in Germany. In parallel, leading operators including Bell Canada, China
Mobile, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile US are working on a joint
initiative together with Samsung and Syniverse to accelerate the open
ecosystem of RCS Interconnection Hubs. Efforts like this initiative to
promote an open interconnected RCS ecosystem are also supported by AT&T
and Swisscom. Interconnection Hubs will be fundamental for the rapid
user adoption of RCS.

“In the space of a year we have aligned the industry behind a single,
interoperable profile, which has resulted in a significant number of
operator launches and a rapidly growing monthly user base. Now we are
seeing operators further demonstrate their support for RCS by
interconnecting their networks in a connect-once-to-all manner, which
will dramatically increase the number of contacts a subscriber can enjoy
RCS messaging with,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA.
“We are also moving quickly towards RCS business messaging, a new area
offering the opportunity for brands to engage directly with their
customers in a more interactive way. This is an exciting time for the
global RCS community and we look forward to seeing more launches and
interconnections in the near future.”

Interconnection of additional operators and hub providers is expected to
follow and the number of network interconnections forecast to exceed 140
by the end of March 2018. Momentum for RCS is growing around the world
with over 159 million current active monthly users, and the potential
for continued growth is also significant with GSMA Intelligence
estimating that, by Q4 2018, there will be 350 million users.

“As operator roll-outs of advanced Messaging (RCS) gather pace around
the world, interconnecting the networks of launched operators becomes a
key success metric,” said Dr. Petja Heimbach of Deutsche Telekom Group
and Chair of the GSMA’s IP Comms Group. “Having a number of interconnect
hubs, which are themselves interconnected, is the fastest way to
accelerate the establishment of global RCS interconnect. We are hoping
to see first commercially available offers in the second half of 2018.”

The GSMA Universal Profile for Advanced Messaging

The GSMA’s Universal Profile (UP) provides an open, consistent and
global messaging service across networks and devices. It simplifies
interoperability and enables OEMs and OS providers to achieve scale and
give consumers a richer and more consistent messaging experience
regardless of device or network. UP is currently backed by over 70
leading operators, vendors and OS providers worldwide. Philippines
based, Globe Telecom also became one of the first operators to launch
RCS in the Asia Pacific region this month.

UP 2.0 upgrades the service further by enabling Application-to-Person
RCS Business messaging and RCS-capable chatbots, as well as additional
messaging expressiveness features. It introduces ‘conversational
commerce’ that will enable users to interact with brands within the
platform. It is an important step that when combined with network
interoperability enables operators to offer a consistent and engaging
messaging experience. For more information about the RCS Universal
Profile or to download the Universal Profile specification 2.0, please
go to: www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/ip-services/universal-profile/.

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting
nearly 800 operators with more than 300 companies in the broader mobile
ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies,
equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in
adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading
events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai,
Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com.
Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.